Rikuo
Rikuo (Aulbath in Japan) is a character from the Darkstalkers series. He is a Brazilian merman. Story Deep beneath the Amazon, lay a kingdom of the 30,000 mermen. One fateful day, this peaceful aquatic empire was shattered and destroyed by a tremendous earthquake and volcanic activity. The merman emperor and hero, Rikuo was alone. His empire destroyed, Rikuo was filled with rage and when he found out that Pyron was the one who caused the fall of his empire, he vowed to destroy him. When Rikuo met another survivor, Keera Aqueria, he settled down with her to rebuild his empire. He and his wife moved out of the Amazon into the great ocean to raise their family. Currently, the family consists of his wife Aqueria, his three sons and 12 soon to hatch eggs. Rikuo and his family live in a crack, 150m deep. The current of the ocean doesn't make its way into the area and is a perfect location to protect their eggs from danger. Rikuo's current self-imposed duty is to search for any other survivors of his kingdom, he searches in a radius of 200km. Though close to his home is a deep oceanic trench, with a fast ocean current running through it, if Rikuo fell into the trench, even he couldn't swim against the strong current and the deepest he could search was 1000m deep. It was an endless search but Rikuo believed that other mermen had survived. Ever since he and his family had moved to this sea, although very faint, he had sensed the life of something similar to his own race. As each day passed, his search for his fellow merman increases in area and the time he spends with his family decreases. During one of his searches, one of his sons, Ricky (Alba in Japan), disappears, Rikuo ponders to himself about how one could defend a kingdom if he cannot protect his own family. Soundly believing that his son was sucked into the Majigen, Rikuo heads his way into Jedah's realm but when the powers of Makai start to fade, the lost, dark sea of Sargasso was released from its century-long isolation and Rikuo found his son along with a new race of merman. The two families now help one another in order to rebuild the civilization of the sea... Powers and abilities Rikuo's physiology grants him the uncanny ability to temporarily morph parts of his body into various aquatic shapes. For example, his arms can temporarily turn into octopus tentacles or crab claws, his feet could turn into a point sea shell or his stomach could expand lie a puffer fish. His claws and fins are also deadly at close range. His tongue is strong enough to grapple enemies and slam them on the ground easily. He can generate super sonic waves that are disorienting and his gills can blow out large clouds of poison gas. He can also summon giant waves, geysers, and entrap opponents inside large gel bubbles. Trivia *Early concept art shows that Rikuo was modeled after the Gill-man from Creature from the Black Lagoon, and also named in honor of stuntman Ricou Browning's portrayal of him. *Rikuo only has four fingers per hand. *The crab that Rikuo rides on in his dark force is known as the Mach-Crab. The Mach-Crab also help in the Bigfoot race's communication network by delivering mail. *During Demitri's Midnight Bliss, Rikuo transforms into a naked mermaid with blonde hair covering his breasts. *During Anakaris' Pharaoh's Curse, Rikuo transforms into a small frog. *During Jedah's San=Passare, he inflates Rikuo's throat until it explodes. This is similar to that of a frog's throat inflating with air. *Rikuo makes a cameo in Hawkeye's ending in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 where he appears behind Jin Saotome. *In the American Darkstalkers cartoon, there is a running gag with Rikuo being "curiously attractive". Gallery Image:RikuoConcept.png|''Concept Art'' Image:DarkstalkersTNW_Rikuo.png|''Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors'' Image:Darkstalkers_TNW_Rikuo_Alt.png|''Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors'' Image:RikuoPortrait.png|''Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors'' Image:DarkRevengeRikuo.png|''Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge'' Image:Rikuo.png|''Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge'' Image:RikuoSketch.png|''Darkstalkers 3'' Image:DarkTributeRikuo.png|''Darkstalkers Tribute'' by Luis Santiago Image:UDONRikuo.png|Rikuo by UDON Image:RikuosStage.png|''Rikuo'''s Stage 14_darkstalkersart03.jpg|Darkstalkers Resurrection Category:Characters Category:Darkstalkers Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Heroes Category:Monsters Category:Fighting Game Characters Category:Non-Human Characters